I'm confused people! I'm reading the episode reviews and SO MANY fans have given this episode ONE STAR.

I'm hoping to find others who think this is DEFINATELY one of their top ten episodes! I absolutely LOVED IT. The funeral at the beginning is one of the most classic scenes in the whole of futurama, the slavery, elton john, it's all great!

I will conceed that the ending isn't anything special, but overall I still think it's fantastic and I don't understand how so many people could hate it. Maybe my sense of humour is just different, I am Australian after all!

Keeping in mind I don't hate this episode or anything, I'll try to explain some of the criticisms of it.

The main problem seems to be Bender, the lovable rascal. Here he's just characterized too meanly. The best episodes centered around him usually keep him in check, but he really is pretty malicious and uncaring in this one.

Also, the plot is sketchy, to say the least, and in fact at times seems a little too un-Futuramaish. It seems to become a standard ancient Egypt thing with a slight twist at points, as opposed to a full blown sci-fi plot.

Finally, humor is subjective, but often this one is seen as not really having enough of it, at least in terms of working jokes. This in itself is tied to the first two criticisms.

Myself? I think its one of the bottom episodes, but I actually don't find it bad either. I'd only watch it occasionally, but I'd still watch. Its a decent episode that just manages to pull through with enough good gags (including some of the ones you mentioned).

The main problem is Bender. He's great as a lovable rascal. He can be evil, but it's usually in the likeable, charming way we see in "The Cyber House Rules", when it's done this way it's great. When it's done in the APTR way, with no compassion whatsoever for those who are supposed to be his friends, it's way over the top and annoying. He lacks opponents to kep him in check.

Plus all of his whinning about not being remembered was out of character and another source of annoyance. Since when has Bender worried about being remembered? The funeral scene was one of the most cringing scenes ever, except for Zoidy's singing, that was golden.

Most of the jokes really didn't work, the plot was predictable and uninteresting and the rest of the crew was AWOL for most of the episode.

Fry and Leela was out of character and way to passive when they got arrested. Leela should've kicked the crap out of the 3 Osirians, she's taken one much bigger crowds before but she didn't even make a move. Fry and Leela never attempted to flee afterwards, even though Bender managed to do it in 3 seconds. It's almost as if they weren't there. Leela did manage to break them free in the end, but it was handed to her on a silver platter, and driven in with a sledge hammer.

Sure there are a few good things: Zoidberg's song, the jabs at organised religion, some really snazy animation, the Aussie (boy that guy can't catch a break), Farnsworth catching the bouquet, the Elton John parody and some other minor stuff. Not enough to compensate for all it's shortcomings. Maybe "The Cryonic Women" is worse, but this one is right up there.

The first time I saw APTR I really didn't like it....I kept waiting for a laugh out loud moment but it never really happened....

But after multiple viewings I have taken a shine to it....it's not overly hilarious but I dunno it's just a cool ep I think....So Bender is out of character, so you forget it's set in the future....big whoop....

Also I like The Cryonic Woman, I just thought they had that ep too soon....should have been a S4 or maybe S3....

This episode definitely has its moments. In fact, all of Ron Weiner's episodes do, yet there's always a kind of cluttered randomness to them that stops them from being as coherent and consistent as episodes from, say, Ken Keeler. Also, with APTR and LTH, there is a tendency to just stop the episode around the 21 minute mark rather than draw the show to a satisfying conclusion. Ultimately, Weiner seems much more interested in cramming in the jokes than coming up with a coherent plot.

This episode was a big one-man Bender show. After the first act, all other characters became obsolete, so Fry and Leela just stood there watching crazy things go down. Bender's character was flushed down the tubes because he all of a sudden wants to be remembered, and becomes whiny. Sure, it had some good moments, like "Danny Boy," Elton John, etc. But every Futurama has its moments. I wouldn't say worst episode ever (that's Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch), but it was still pretty bad.

I thought it was decidedly unsubtle for a satire on the influence of television (e.g. "TV gave us the idea." ) and didn't live up to the heights of most Futurama satires. That said, the network exec bots were hillarious and spot on, and there was nifty use of a certain Black Flag tune in there.

300 Big Boys had the saving grace of Fry's story, and the payoff thereof. If they had made the entire episode about that . . .

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Originally posted by Birdbot:Ever heard of The Cryonic Woman?

The Cryonic Woman had the saving grace of the entire episode up until the point Michelle was introduced.

You name any episode, and I will think of at least one scene that makes it better than Pharaoh.

Pharaoh had no saving grace. I found myself either wanting to tear my brain out of my skull, or bash Bender's head in with a baseball bat, or bash the TV in with a baseball bat.

I have a thousand years of power."NOOOOO HE WAS MY BROTHER!" and then got tired and slept."He has the special talent, though, of being able to help people and make them feel utterly stupid all at the same time. ... In short, he's a great moderator, but a terrible human being."-SlackJawedMoron

I thought it was a good episode. esp.Bender: "You really think they'll remember me?"Fry: "Absolutely."Bender: "Well in that case.... One planet down. Helmsman, set course for ... Earth! Muhuahahha hahaha."Leela: "That's not Earth."Bender: "Oh."

Originally posted by DotheBartman:The main problem seems to be Bender, the lovable rascal. Here he's just characterized too meanly. The best episodes centered around him usually keep him in check, but he really is pretty malicious and uncaring in this one.

Futurama fan: "I like it when the robot is mean. I like how he doesn't have emotions, and can act inappropriately."(then watches "APtR" )Futurama fan: "I don't like this episode. The robot's too mean and doesn't have emotions."

Yeah, I've always found the "Bender is too mean" criticism to be a load of crap. He's a drinking, whoring, foul-mouthed rascal. What do you expect?

A drinking, whoring foul-mouthed rascal that you don't want to give a swift kick in the ASCII, perhaps? I mean, Bender is usually likeable, despite (or because of, take your pick) his many negative traits. In this episode, he is more annoying than anything else.

I don't think APtR is that bad, but it is lacking the "one good scene" that most of the other so-called worst episodes have, which makes the rest of the episode that much more unbearable.

Originally posted by evan:Yeah, I've always found the "Bender is too mean" criticism to be a load of crap. He's a drinking, whoring, foul-mouthed rascal. What do you expect?

In no other episode did I want to beat his head in with an aluminum baseball bat.

I have a thousand years of power."NOOOOO HE WAS MY BROTHER!" and then got tired and slept."He has the special talent, though, of being able to help people and make them feel utterly stupid all at the same time. ... In short, he's a great moderator, but a terrible human being."-SlackJawedMoron

I personally liked the religion-bashing (prophecy) scene. To me, that was the saving grace of the episode. But hey, this opinion is highly subjective (you know, being an opinion and all), and I do realize that quite a few people are not into religion-bashing.

Personally I found this episode a little empty. As bender heavy Episodes usually are. But When I analyze it, Its not bad. Had a fair few good points. Just bender was the problem. It was still funny, but you didnt like his. As has already been explained.

Originally posted by Anarchist:I personally liked the religion-bashing (prophecy) scene. To me, that was the saving grace of the episode. But hey, this opinion is highly subjective (you know, being an opinion and all), and I do realize that quite a few people are not into religion-bashing.

I personally preferred the way Godfellas handled religion than APTR. That said, I found "Dear Lord..." "OH, NEXT!" and The Wall Of Prophecy funny the first few times I saw it, but they're in a similarly cynical and unsubtle vein to the ending with the Martians in Where The Buggalo Roam.

Yeah, I've always found the "Bender is too mean" criticism to be a load of crap. He's a drinking, whoring, foul-mouthed rascal. What do you expect?

The problem here is that his behavior is too overplayed and the better aspects of him are too played down. In episodes like "Jurassic Bark" or "Godfellas" he does some pretty rotten things, but ultimately he has enough compassion that, for instance, he wouldn't kill a person intentionally. And he usually cares for his friends more then in APTR, where I almost wouldn't have been suprised if he had murdered them horribly at some point.

Also, whereas other episodes manage to make him lovable, here its like they don't even try. Especcially given how shallow and seemingly randomly created the "conflict"of the story was.

Basically, the problem isn't so much the behavior itself, but how it is presented and how exxagerated it is. For instance, Fry is dumb, but it would be too much if he tried to decapitate himself so he could drink his own blood or something. Or, to name a real example from another show, Homer in all the Scully seasons.

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